Dish 'Investigating' Another Workaround For TiVo Patent

6/17/2009 4:02 PM Eastern

By: Todd Spangler

Dish Network said in a court filing Monday that it is looking into developing another workaround for a patent owned by TiVo, as the satellite company awaits a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals on whether it would be forced to comply with an order to disable some 4 million of its DVRs.

Dish, in a one-sentence filing in the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, said it "is investigating other potential design-around options, but at this stage, does not know whether a further design-around is even possible."

The satellite TV operator suffered a serious blow in the case earlier this month, after Judge David Folsom found Dish in contempt for violating a court order to stop using TiVo's "Time Warp" patent and awarded the DVR company an additional $103 million plus interest. Folsom, in his June 2 ruling, also ordered Dish to notify the court if the company were trying to create another workaround for the patent.